Roar – Tigers Of The Sunderbans Review {1.5/5} & Review Rating
Bollywood filmmakers have always had a fascination of making movie based on wild animals. While some movies in the 70s and 80s showed wild animals as man's best friend, others featured stories of human settlements under threat by the attacks of the wild beast.
This week's release ROAR: TIGERS OF THE SUNDARBANS is about a man's mission to kill a white tigress in order to avenge his brother's death. Does ROAR: TIGERS OF THE SUNDARBANS really live upto its name and does it really have what it takes to do a 'roaring' business at the Box-Office, let's analyze.
The film starts off with Uday, a young and raring-to-go photojournalist who is on an assignment in the jungles of the Sundarbans. While he is busy capturing the wildlife at its best, he stumbles upon a cub of a white tiger, who gets ensnarled in a poacher's trap. Taking fancy for the young one, he 'rescues' it by bringing it to his room in a cardboard box. This creates panic and unrest amongst the villagers. That's when a Forest Officer (Achint Kaur) comes in with her team takes the cub away. Around the same time the cub's yearning mother (a full-fledged white tigress) follows the smell of its young one and sniffs her way to Uday's room. Eventually, she not only kills him, but also drags away his body to an unknown destination. Learning about his brother's death, a dashing Army Officer Pundit (Abhinav Shukla) enters the scene in order to claim his brother's body for the last rites. When he sees no positive reply from anywhere and anyone (including the Forest Officer who tells him that the case is closed), he decides to take things in his own hands and get justice to his brother by avenging his death. His plan is to kill the white tigress that killed his brother.
As a part of the plan, he ropes in a set of best officers, viz., Cheena (Virendra Singh Ghuman), CJ (Nora Fatehi), Hero (Ali Quli), Sufi (Aaran Chaudhary) and Kashmiri (Aadil Chahal). Joining their team are a local guide Madhu (Pranay Dixit) and Jhumpa (Himarsha V). Even before they tackle the tigress, they have yet another job in hand in the form of tackling the evil ways and methods of the dense jungle's self-confessed 'best poacher' Bheera (Subrat Dutta).
Does Pundit become successful in avenging his brother's death by hunting down the white tigress, does his team help him fulfill his mission and does the team ever get to know the evil ways and hidden motives of the villainous Bheera is what forms the rest of the film.
The actor- turned-director Kamal Sadanah who has directed ROAR, is also the film's story writer (along with Abis Rizvi), editor (along with Muzzammil Nasir), screenplay writer and dialogue writer (along with Swati Goradiya and Aanand Goradiya). As far as his direction is concerned, Sadanah has a long way to go. There are places which make the film look boring and monotonous, but the film's photography and camera work overshadow the flaws in his direction. The film tends to drag its way with a dull first half, however, the second half is comparatively interesting and engaging, especially towards the end of the film.
As far as the performances in the film are concerned, it is Abhinav Shukla, in true sense of the word, who leads them all. Trailing a close second is Himarsha V, in the role of Jhumpa. Despite being the 'lead', there is hardly any romantic scene of them together (the climax 'kiss' notwithstanding). Achint Kaur, although having a short role, looks a bit outspaced in the role of a Forest Officer. The rest of the cast offer their support in whatever way possible in taking the film's story forward.
The film falters mainly because of its poor screenplay and average dialogues. The film's music (Ramona Arena) is also a letdown. The film scores its brownie points solely and heavily because of its background music (John Stewart), cinematography (Michael Watson) and action (Allan Amin), as these three departments are the film's saving grace. The icing on the cake is the VFX of the film, which helps in giving the viewers a first-hand experience of a gigantic white tigress.
On the whole, despite its decent VFX work, ROAR: TIGERS OF THE SUNDARBANS is a weak film.
